Mossley, now part of the Tameside metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester lies on a steep hillside between the A670 (Top Mossley) and the A635 (Bottom Mossley),three miles north east of Ashton under Lyne. Until Mossley became a Lancashire borough in 1885 it was in three counties, and still has three parish churches; St. George's (Lancashire), St. John the Baptist (Yorkshire) and All Saints (Cheshire). Being on the fringe of the Greater Manchester conurbation Mossley did not follow the same pattern of industrial development as other towns in the area. In 1841 it still only had a population of 1,500. By 1911 this had risen to 13,000.
